How Many Photos Do You Take to Get a Good One?

[cristianna]

Well today after 339 of five different children-- individually, couples, and group... about 20.

But that took into account staged smiles (as I like to call them), blinking, sudden movement, etc. I guess all in all that's not bad, but I'm not sure.

 

[Shayla1]

It depends what the picture is of. Most times around 50, I'll get a few good ones.

 

[Niamh]

If I get 5 out of a hundred it's pretty good going for me.

 

[Boss_BlueAngels]

Well I was doing a little experimentation this weekend at an airshow... out of 1,300 I'd say about 200 are worth the memory they took up. lol And about 60 are worth printing. haha But I learned what I needed to learn, so that made them all worth it.

 

[cristianna]

... But I learned what I needed to learn, so that made them all worth it.

That's the key right there!

 

[Keeda]

I think this all really depends on how you shoot too. Some photographers, especially those with an unlimited budget or those with digitals will be out there shooting shot after shot of the same item just to get one shot. Others that have limits or are extremely aware of what they're doing will take lots of extra time to set up their shots or study their subjects before shooting one or two frames and walking away.

I saw the PBS show "At Close Range" about the National Geographic Photographer Joel Sartore. Was a pretty awesome show. He apparently is one of the last few at National Geographic that still shoots in film but will shoot about 600 rolls per assignment and only come out with a few hundred he'll use. Very insightful program if you ever get to watch it.

 

[cristianna]

Thanks for the info Keeda. We have a handful of retired NG photographers in a 25 mile radius from me. Now, that should tell you how I feel when I compare my images to any "locals".

Seriously though, I've never asked them for advice or tips because I *assume* they are always overwhelmed with people asking for pointers. I wonder if I could ever get up the ambition to ask one to be a mentor or to come out shooting with me for the day. Probably not!!!!!

 

[Keeda]

Hey, you'll never know if you don't try! Just one tip on asking for a mentor though, be sure to find someone with a similar style as yours. I asked a sort of established photographer once to critique some of my stuff and give me some pointers and it didn't go very well because of our differences in photo and shooting style.

Some other forums you might find useful information (not to mention overwhelmingly great photos and photographers alike) is betterphoto.com, photo.net and usefilm.com

And what I wouldn't give just to go out and simply WATCH a former National Geographic on a shoot one day.. The things and tricks you could learn!

 

[Godssong]

Yeah, that sounds about right...take TONS, keep only a few...yep...although, a lot of photography I've done has been for Equestrian events (therefore action shots), so that makes it kinda rough! Oh, well...

 

[cristianna]

And what I wouldn't give just to go out and simply WATCH a former National Geographic on a shoot one day.. The things and tricks you could learn!

Very true! I never even thought of that!

 

[AG]

What percentage of the photos you take are you happy with? I only really get about 2 or 3 out of 100 that I'm happy with though as I'm trying to learn about my camera I do a lot of experimenting. How about you?

i get between 12 - 15 out of 300 that I like, and out of those about 5 are good enough to sell...

 

[AG]

oh i want to be a photographer, but i have been told off...cos people say I will not earn any money with that

 

[AG]

maybe some of you could help?? what shall i do?

mybe I am not a good photographer after all??

 

[JDDCH]

When I go out to take photos I take approximately 1000 - 1500 shots. of those, I keep approx 250 and I have approximately 3 TB on file.
of the 3TB on file I'll be selecting the best 1000 images for a couple books and photo collections for commercial sale.

 

[AG]

When I go out to take photos I take approximately 1000 - 1500 shots. of those, I keep approx 250 and I have approximately 3 TB on file.
of the 3TB on file I'll be selecting the best 1000 images for a couple books and photo collections for commercial sale.

does photography make enuff money for living?

me is just trying to figure out how far can i go with photography

 

[JDDCH]

heheheh it depends on if you're good at it or not and if you're in the right spot at the right time or not and if you sell your images to the right people at the right time or not.

Yes, you can make a living with photography, but if you don't enjoy it you wont do well. You have to really love photography. The camera should be an extension of your eyeballs so to speak.

For me, I take my camera absolutely everywhere I go. People are starting to call me "the camera guy" hehehehehe.

Get to know your equipment, get to know people and get to know environments.

All in all, you'll do quite well. I'd recommend finding a mentor. Someone you can talk with for advice, learning, sharing your work with for tips and advice. That person can be local or via internet.

JD - loves photography muy whole bunches 'n stuff

 

[AG]

heheheh it depends on if you're good at it or not and if you're in the right spot at the right time or not and if you sell your images to the right people at the right time or not.

Yes, you can make a living with photography, but if you don't enjoy it you wont do well. You have to really love photography. The camera should be an extension of your eyeballs so to speak.

For me, I take my camera absolutely everywhere I go. People are starting to call me "the camera guy" hehehehehe.

Get to know your equipment, get to know people and get to know environments.

All in all, you'll do quite well. I'd recommend finding a mentor. Someone you can talk with for advice, learning, sharing your work with for tips and advice. That person can be local or via internet.

JD - loves photography muy whole bunches 'n stuff

cool... as i am thinking bout my future, and I love photography...i can just walk along the same road for 100 times and allways spot something new, and i always wish i had a camera...i sort of see the picture that could be ...hehe...im mad sometimes, but have no good camera, so just hoping

how to get a mentor??

 

[cyberlizard]

my wife mocks me endlessly. i take the camera in the car everywhere i go... i tell her you never know when you might see a good road traffic accident. (i know you should not mock - my brother had an awful one 4 months back, collapsed lung, broken arm, 6 broken ribs, removed his spleen and has scars like you would not believe - but he's alive and that's all that matters)

for anyone who really takes their photography seriously I cannot recommend highly enough the colorvision spyders for calibrating the monitor colors and grey scales accurately. I use mine all the time.

As for photo's I enjoy fireworks though find out of a couple of hundred I am only happy with two or three good bursts. The rest, well keep the raw files, convert to dng.

one final advice to anyone that does not know, do not repeatedly save a JPEG image, it will lose quality all the time. Stick with RAW, DNG or TIFF.


Steve

 

[Keeda]

one final advice to anyone that does not know, do not repeatedly save a JPEG image, it will lose quality all the time. Stick with RAW, DNG or TIFF.


Steve

Hey thanks for the advice there. I've heard it before but I guess it just never quite sunk in and I save as jpeg all the time. I should really start trying it out as a tiff. Does it make it harder to view or process though? I guess that's why I've always stuck with the safe jpeg, between that and my computers not all that great so I'm not sure what it can handle..

 

[Tiberius]

My camera can save as both jpeg and raw files. When I am working with jpegs from my camera, they are only saved as jpegs twice - once when the camera saves them to the memory card and again when I do the final save after I have finished working on it. All other times, I save it as a PSD file, the native file format for Photoshop which doesn't compress the image. it maintains quality no matter how many times I save it. Saving as a jpeg twice isn't going to cause any noticable damage to your photos.